SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

THE APPLE BITES – FROM ABC NEWS:   Apple announced today that it will be investing $350 billion in the U.S. economy over the next five years, creating more than 20,000 jobs.  In a news release, the company also said it would make a $38 billion tax payment to the U.S. as required by recent changes to the tax law. Apple said this would be the largest tax payment of its kind.  "We believe deeply in the power of American ingenuity, and we are focusing our investments in areas where we can have a direct impact on job creation and job preparedness. We have a deep sense of responsibility to give back to our country and the people who help make our success possible," CEO Tim Cook said in the release.  Apple said it would focus on three areas: direct employment by Apple; spending and investment with its domestic suppliers and manufacturers; and fueling the fast-growing app economy that it's created with the iPhone and its App Store.
Amid today's news, the company also broke ground on a new site in Reno, Nevada.  Ah, another Trump failure.  What are we going to do with all that industry?  All those revenues?  Poverty is so much easier.

THE CNN CLOWN CLUB DOES IT AGAIN – FROM FOX:   CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta was ridiculed across social media on Wednesday for declaring that President Trump has heart disease.  White House physician Ronny Jackson said on Tuesday that Trump was in "excellent health" after conducting the president’s physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last week. Jackson answered a variety of questions from skeptical reporters during a press briefing and repeatedly stated that Trump was perfectly fine, with the exception of needing cholesterol medicine and being slightly overweight.  But on Wednesday morning Gupta, who did not examine Trump, took Jackson’s data and declared that Trump has heart disease, prompting instant ridicule from people on both sides of the political aisle.  “This is math. This is based on the numbers that Dr. Jackson provided,” Gupta said. “The president has heart disease.”  White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders reminded everyone during Wednesday’s press briefing that Jackson is the only doctor who has actually examined the president, calling him the “only credible source” when it comes to Trump’s health.  Gupta should be censured by the appropriate medical society.  What he did was grossly unethical.  He simply was following the CNN anti-Trump line.  The hatred is deep.  The journalism is thin.

NO CLASS, NO TASTE, NO STANDARDS – FROM HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:   Michael Wolff's controversial "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" is coming to television.   Endeavor Content — the financing and sales arm formed in October between sister companies William Morris Endeavor and IMG — has purchased film and television rights to the No. 1 best-selling book. The massive deal is said to be in the seven-figure range. Endeavor Content plans to adapt the book as a TV series. A network is not yet attached, as Endeavor will now begin shopping the project.  Wolff will executive produce the series, with veteran Channel 4 and BBC executive Michael Jackson — now CEO of indie producer Two Cities Television — also on board to produce.  This is a terrible idea – a series based on a poorly reported book, which will lose half the audience before even going on the air.  It's typical of Hollywood.  They think this is great stuff.  Remember that CBS tried the same thing with a Reagan movie, portraying Mr. Reagan as a goofball.  It was so bad that CBS pulled it before it went on the air. 

January 17,  2018